Impressive array of machines and explosions keeps 'Terminator' moving

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If a cell phone went off during the preview of “Terminator Salvation” this week at Edwards Mira Mesa, you wouldn't have heard it. And if a baby had wailed, no one would've noticed.

The decibel level is brain-rattling for this fourth in the series of Judgment Day, man vs. machine extravaganzas in which gigantic metal creatures roam the Earth clanging about and attempting to destroy humankind.

There are so many eye-popping explosions, it's a blast of a picture in more ways than one.

The noise is part of the fervent “Terminator” moviegoing experience, the first three starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the first two superbly directed by James (“Titanic”) Cameron. Does Arnold make an appearance in this one? Let's not go there.

In “Terminator Salvation,” the volatile Christian Bale plays John Connor, leader of the post-Judgment Day resistance, undermanned against these marauding, humongous, metallic killers hunting and gathering the few people still hiding out.

He, in fact, is the least interesting of characters that include two rendered by stars-to-be: Aussie Sam Worthington as the half-human/half-machine Marcus Wright, and Anton Yelchin, as Kyle Reese, the youngster who, in time-traveling reality, is Connor's father.

Worthington stars in Cameron's “Avatar,” the big-budget, 3-D science-fiction project to be released in December. And Yelchin is delightful as Chekov, navigator of the USS Enterprise in “Star Trek.” Both bring a freshness to “Terminator Salvation,” souls to care about and cheer amid the bleakness.

The movie is directed by the irritatingly named McG, his most noted credits two “Charlie's Angels” films. He was handed a production budget in the $200 million range and, as they say in Hollywood, it's up there on the screen – tremendous effects and extraordinary action sequences.

The variety of Terminator machines is a terrific legacy left by the late Stan Winston (the movie is dedicated to him), the man who came up with the dinosaurs in the “Jurassic Park” films.

In “Terminator Salvation,” there are scary monsters like the Harvester, an insect-like unit that hones in on prey, gathers it up like a spider and plops it into a Transporter for a rough trip back to Skynet, the artificial intelligence network that turned on its inventors, annihilation of human beings now its goal.

There are also Hunter-Killers, two-wheeled Moto-Terminators, T-600 foot soldiers; Aerostats, drones that find human survivors and eliminate them; and, coolest of all, the Hydrobot, an underwater Terminator, kind of crab-like that slithers through the depths with a razor-sharp-head, drilling its victims.

Are you paying attention, Michael Bay, director of the much cheesier “Transformers” flicks?

There are in “Terminator Salvation” unsettling visages of underground prisons and cattle cars stuffed with people, folks marching to their deaths, reminiscent of Holocaust scenes in “Schindler's List.”

Bale, meanwhile, was caught in a mini-scandal this year when a recording of him losing his temper on the set in New Mexico was posted on the Internet. His profane eruption (one four-letter word was counted 40 or so times in four minutes) focused on director of photography Shane Hurlbut, whom he accused of disrupting his concentration.

The irony is that Hurlbut's work is brilliant, Bale a mere supporting player to the machines. The cinematographer's handling of fiery crashes, air and underwater assaults, the grave landscape, a scenario of a destroyed world, is artful.

“Terminator Salvation” is nonstop action, a unique war movie of impressive magnitude.